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In the previous class we discussed the so

called the legendary story of Chan Buddhism.

But right now we'll speak about the real story which also very complicated.

But anyway we know that the Idea of the meditation came from India.

And came from this school of Lankavatara Sutra.

Lankavatara Sutra, according to legend, it was a speech, or

the series of speech of Buddha, which he pronounced in the Sri Lanka,

that the name of the Lankavatara The Sutra or the Descent into Lanka.

This Sutra was brought to China and translated many times.

The first translation was made in the 3rd century BC, and

this translation Stay alive, and it was a very egregious translation.

But anyway, this translation became very famous.

The second, or maybe the third translation was made by Gunabhadra.

And now the Indian teacher which came to the south part of China and

maybe this translation was used by the Bodhidharma,

who transmitted these Lankavatara Sutra to his first student, Huike.

But that's a legend, but anyway, Lankavatara Sutra really existed and

still exists today.

And the main idea of Lankavatara is the idea of the meditative

meditation Buddhism.

So it means the idea of the Buddha-nature, everyone has a Buddha-nature

inside himself and another main idea, they're the objective world.

A vision is just the manifestation of the mind itself, so

it means that this world is just a projection of our mind,

and this world completely depends of the Situation inside our mind.

If we are pure, if we are quiet,

it means that the world that is around me is also completely pure,

pure of any illusions, of any troubles, of any bad ideas, of any evil.

So everything depends on myself.

That was one of the main ideas of Lankavatara Sutra.

According to the historical Chronicles, the first teachers of the meditative

Buddhism called themselves the Lankavatara teachers, not the Chan teachers.

Chan was just a practice of the Lankavatara school or

the practice of meditation.

So that's one of the first texts about this school,

it's called the Line of the Transmission of the Lankavatara Teachers and Students.

So school of the Lankavatara flourished and

give a burst to the several small and big schools all around China.

First of all the soft part of China in the present day [FOREIGN] province and

in the central part of China in the present day Hunan province.

These schools were not completely the same.

And these schools had a lot of discussions about the idea of the enlightenment.

The first discussion came mostly in the 7th century,

it's the idea of the speed of this enlightenment,

of the means of this enlightenment, sudden or gradual.

Northern School in the Hunan Province persuaded the idea that it

should be gradual, step by step development of the human mind.

And the gradual enlightenment, so that mean that you have to move to

enlightenment in the very small step in the very slow paces.

And maybe it will take maybe dozen of years.

So no one could tell you when this enlightenment could be reached, but

anyway it's a long wait for it.

This southern school which flourished in south part of China.

In Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, postulated another idea.

The idea of this southern enlightenment.

So it means that you can reach and

learn them in sudden just write and here without any preparation.

So it can meditate for a long time but suddenly you can feel

some kind of explosion inside you and it means the enlightenment.

Everything will be enlightened by the fame of glory that came from inside you.

That was one of the points of the discussion.

But in reality, a lot of people agree Huineng told

that everything is dependent on the human abilities.

If you are stupid, If you are not too smart.

If you are not too prudent in your teaching,

it would be very gradual with toward enlightenment.

But if you are motivated, if you are a very hard studying people,

it means that you can't reach enlightenment in a very fast way.

So everything is depend on your own abilities.

Another point of the discussion was the point of who could be the real teacher,

and the real transmitter of the true tradition.

Five schools flourished in China.

It was not just a small schools, there was a mainstreams.

These streams became very famous in the medieval China and it was called the Five

houses, wu jia, or sometime we called the Five flowers, wu jua.

Some of these schools became very important for the future of Buddhism,

the first one, it's called, the school's Linji.

Namely by the name of the teacher or the father of the school.

Which pronounce the idea of the Sudden enlightenment and

the teaching only through meditation, not reading any sutras.

Another school of Caodong, which came originally from the north

part of China, combined the habilitation and the reading of sutras.

For example, very famous Shaolin Monastery is based on the [FOREIGN] School.

So different schools propose different ideas, and

different ways how to move throughout reality.

So some schools, mainly and only based on meditation,

of any kind of meditation, sitting or standing, or laying.

But anyway, it should be a meditation.

Without any words, without any scriptures.

And other schools tried to combine the classical approach of Buddhism.

So it means the textual approach and

the time more than approach which was a meditative approach.

So the Chan mainly after the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries.

What what why we call this flourishing?

Because that time, all the schools were

School for Buddhists, for monks and for some official elite.

After the flourishing this school became widespread all around Chan.

I'll speak about it later.

But first of all Chan Buddhists maybe were the first tradition

who decided to make it extreme line its tradition.

It means to make a direct line from the first patriarch,

from the Bodhidharma, up to the present day teachers.

So it was, last time we spoke about the legendary story

of the development of Chan Buddhism.

So this legendary story, first patriarch, second, etc., etc.

So this story was established in several

texts that were published during the 10th and 11th centuries BC.

One of the most famous texts was called the Transmission of the Lamp,

which means the transmission of the lamp of teaching, the lamp of enlightenment.

It was a very huge story, in a very huge text,

full of different kind of stories and

according to this text all small lines, all small brush would just cut it out.

And we can see just at one school, one mystery,

one diety from Bodhidharma up to date.

And inside this mainstream, we can find some very famous teachers, and

first of all Mazu Daoyi, of the Hongzhou school, from the central part of China.

All these teachers are just develop it more and

more, tribal Buddhist ideas, or the subtle enlightenment.

Enlightenment without any preconditions, and the idea of the direct teachings,

that means everyday discussions between teacher and student.

So this direct transmission became very important in the Mazu Daoyi school.

And even today, we can read very famous and

sometimes a very funny text of the Mazu Daoyi called the Mazu Daoyi Lu.

Which is the very huge of collection of small stories,

how Mazu tried to train the students,

first of all, to liberate their mind, to get rid of any conventions and

to be keep really free person full of spiritual freedom.

That was one of the idea of the Chan Buddhist doing its flourishing.

The glory of Chan came after the 12th century.

After 12th century, Chan became a main school of Chinese Buddhism.

We can find Chan influence everywhere from art and painting to the state power,

state level, and all the schools were supported by the state.

And it was widely supported by,

sponsored by the empires, by the local rulers, by the domestic administration.

And they sponsored the establishment of new monasteries, of new schools,

so Chan Buddhism became officially one of the mostly developed schools in China.

So that was the glory of Chan Buddhism, In the Medieval China.

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